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OTTAWA — If you down one Orange Mango FUZE Vitalize in a day, you'd be well advised to avoid milk, eggs and other animal products that day. The fruit drink is boosted with so much vitamin A, some nutritionists say it could be risky for your health to consume any other items that contain the nutrient.

The amount of vitamin A in Coca-Cola's fruit drink is well above Heath Canada's recommended daily intake. In fact, it hits the government's tolerable upper intake level for adults. That maximum daily level was established after evidence showed that consuming more of vitamin A in the retinol form — the type contained in this drink — may cause liver abnormalities and, if consumed by pregnant women, birth defects.

But the sale of FUZE Vitalize — and other drinks and snacks fortified with high amounts of vitamins — are permitted to be sold in Canada. That's why some nutrition experts say it's time Health Canada overhauled the way it controls these fortified food and drink products.

The regulatory problem arises because of a backlog of licence applications at Health Canada's natural health products directorate. Normally, "food like" products sold as natural health product require a licence from the directorate before they can be sold.

But with a huge backlog of licence applications, the department issues exemption numbers to companies that have filed natural-health product application licences so long as they meet certain safety conditions. Products with an exemption number can be sold while awaiting their in-depth assessment.

Meanwhile, the directorate has licensed some items classified as natural health products containing the daily upper intake level amount of vitamin A, but requires a prescription if they exceed the upper intake level.

The lobby group for country's largest food companies, Food & Consumer Products of Canada, calls this a "workaround" to get novel foods to market in the absence of voluntary food fortification rules at Health Canada's food directorate. But some nutrition experts call it a problem.

A Health Canada spokesman said a departmental expert was unavailable to discuss the department's current predicament, citing "challenges" with a topic that straddles both the food and drug regulations and those set out for natural health products.

Instead, the department issued a written statement, acknowledging that the natural health products regulations "are not intended to regulate food" — and Health Canada is working on a plan to ensure they are regulated under an "appropriate framework."

Susan Whiting, a professor of nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan, said it's time Health Canada sorts out the problem.

Whiting said she was shocked to discover that Coca-Cola is permitted to sell a fortified fruit drink with "this really high amount" of vitamin A.

Health Canada's recommended daily dietary intake for men of 900 mcg (retinol activity equivalents) of vitamin A for men and 700 mcg for women. One FUZE Vitalize bottle, containing 547 ml, contains 3,000 mcg or 10,000 international units (IU) — the tolerable upper intake level for vitamin A for adults in Canada but in excess of the safety limit set for teens (2,800 mcg) and children ages nine to 13 (1,700 mcg).

"It's totally unnecessary to add that amount of vitamin A in a product," Whiting said.

What's worse, said Whiting, is the level of retinol found in FUZE Vitalize is potentially harmful for pregnant women — that's why she views Health Canada's upper intake level for vitamin A as "serious."

Vitamin A, found in retinol form in animal and dairy products or carotene form in fruits and vegetables, helps maintain immune function, eyesight and skin membranes. But a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that among babies born to women who took more than 10,000 IU of vitamin A in the form of retinol supplements, one infant in 57 had a malformation attributable to the supplement.

"If you over-consume retinol when you're pregnant, there's a risk of birth defects. And in older adults, the risk is for liver damage," said Whiting.

In a written statement, the company cited the health benefits of vitamin A and said the product is safe. The product is also formulated and labelled in accordance with Health Canada's natural health product directorate guidelines, Coca-Cola said.

FUZE Vitalize labels advise consumers not to consume more than one bottle per day and pregnant women should consult their health-care practitioner prior to consuming the beverage, the company added.

But family doctor Yoni Freedhoff, founder of Ottawa's Bariatric Medical Institute, a nutrition and weight management centre, said the problem goes well beyond FUZE Vitalize. He cited the avalanche of fortified food and drink products entering the marketplace in a "haphazard" way — and resulting health risks associated with overconsuming certain nutrients.

For example, 42 fortified drink products have already received approval to be sold as natural health products — but more than 300 other fortified juices, sports drinks, waters, coffees and teas have been issued exemption numbers and can be sold, according to Health Canada, while is deal with the backlog of approval applications.

Three gum or candy bar products have received natural health product numbers, and another 86 snack bars, popsicles, puddings and fruit purees have been issued exemption numbers.

"If we have no proof that there's a benefit, there's a possibility of risk, and all it's going to do is sell more of these products — by definition, that's why the food companies are doing this, they're not adding stuff to protect our health, they're adding stuff to sell food — it just seems like an exceedingly strange practice for Health Canada to explicitly endorse and encourage," said Freedhoff.

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